Pennsylvania Police Question Students in Search for Killer of Family of 3

LANCASTER, Pa. – The search for the killer of three suburban Pennsylvania family members has led investigators to a local high school.

Police have been conducting interviews at Manheim Township High School in Lancaster County as part of their hunt for the person who stabbed to death Tom and Lisa Haines and their 16-year-old son, Kevin, on May 12. The family was killed on the second floor of their home in the middle of the night. Their 20-year-old daughter, Maggie Haines, who was home from college, escaped unharmed and called 911.

Investigators have no suspects in the killings. But Manheim Township police Sgt. Thomas Rudzinski told The Lancaster Intelligencer Journal that officials are hoping students at the high school can provide a profile of Kevin Haines, a 16-year-old sophomore.

"Kevin was a student there, so we are talking to his friends," Rudzinski told the newspaper. "We are doing 'victimology' on all three (victims). We are trying to find out who they were and why they were targeted."

Investigators have not yet found a motive for the slayings. But they're trying to determine if perhaps someone at school bullied Kevin, who was stabbed with a knife several times in the chest and his neck was cut. He was a member of the school's Quiz Bowl team.

"That is one theory that has come up, and we are looking at it," Rudzinski told the Intelligencer Journal. "We haven't ruled out anything. We are keeping every single door open."

Police have said the person who stabbed the family to death may have injured his or her hand, arm or another body part, police said last week as they asked for the public's help in solving the crime.

Also, the killer may have lied about his or her whereabouts from 1 to 3 a.m. the night of the murders, they said.

"If you know this person, you may not think they are capable of this type of crime," police said in a news release. "They may also have fabricated an alibi concerning their whereabouts during this time frame. They may not have a prior record of violence."

Maggie Haines went to her parents' bedroom after being awakened by noise around 2 a.m. May 12 police said. Her father was lying on the bed and her mother was sitting on it.

Lisa Haines told her daughter, who had returned home from Bucknell University for the summer a day earlier, to seek help. She summoned police from a home across the street.

The couple and Kevin found dead inside the home. A back door was ajar and nothing appeared to have been taken.